world_of_homestuckfandomcom-20200214-history
032815KateMerrow
taxidermizingAmaranthine TA began pestering aspiringArchon AA at 02:21 -- 02:21 TA: You are Merrow, yes? 02:22 AA: Ah, Katherine. Yes, we have spoken once or twice before. 02:22 TA: ... 02:22 TA: Have we? 02:22 AA: We spoke about the Time aspect, yes. 02:22 TA: Ah. Yes. 02:23 TA: Apologies. 02:23 AA: Am I speaking to the past you perhaps? 02:23 TA: In a complicated sense, maybe. 02:23 TA: It's gotten rather confusing. 02:23 TA: Largely in part due to recent events. 02:23 AA: Yes. Everything seams to have. 02:23 TA: Seems. 02:24 AA: Your frond appears to have gone on a krilling spree, and now another has gone crazy. 02:24 AA: And Maenam has undergone an impressive change as whale. 02:25 AA: Or perhaps this other frond has been pulling the strings all along. 02:25 TA: Oh. Yes. Fish puns. I almost forgot. 02:25 TA: Ugh. My head hurts, honestly. 02:25 TA: Yes, Meouet's turncoat is... 02:25 TA: unexpected. 02:25 TA: And, frankly, heartbreaking. 02:26 AA: I imagine it would be. I was betrayed recently myself. By a few vassals and my sister. 02:26 AA: And now one of those vassals is dead. 02:26 AA: They all claimed to have good reasons for it at least. Other than Ectrix who seams to just not give a shit. 02:27 TA: I assume you mean the excursion with Jack. 02:27 AA: Yes. 02:27 TA: Well. 02:27 AA: They assisted him in winning my betrothed's primer in my stead. 02:28 TA: Take it from someone who has fallen for his attempts to lead us to doing things that may or may not have been in our interest, I'm sure they mean their reasonings sincerely. 02:28 TA: He is quite coercive. 02:28 AA: Perhaps. I intended to give him a chance to win back my trust. As I intend to do for Lily. But he did not have time to succeed at that. 02:29 AA: I do not trust Jack. And it is not just because of the stories I have heard about his dealings with you all. 02:29 AA: But I also do not think I can afford to ignore him or shrimply avoid dealing with him. 02:29 TA: It is difficult, or perhaps impossible to avoid ever dealing with him. 02:29 TA: At some point, it may be your only option. 02:29 TA: He has a way of finding you at your most desperate. 02:29 AA: So, Katherine. These incidents that have occurred in the past few days. Are you here to convince me to continue trusting you veterans to lead us? 02:30 TA: No. 02:30 TA: I am in no place to do so, as I'm sure you understand. 02:30 TA: I am here to simply talk. 02:30 AA: Oh? 02:30 TA: Yes. 02:31 TA: There is a divide between our two sessions. 02:31 AA: That is a shame. I am looking for some reassurances right now. Perhaps Maenam will succeed in taking charge then. 02:31 AA: But that just means when I finally depose her I will be stuck with the onus. Oh whale. That was alwaves my destiny I suppose. 02:31 TA: Not necessarilly. 02:32 TA: Sami and I, in our session, wanted to succeed by largely being friends with everyone. 02:32 TA: Together, we could make the right decisions. 02:32 AA: In a group this size? Relying on shrimple frondship to get you by? 02:32 AA: Perhaps if it were a party of five that would work. But you have thirty people to take care of. Whale, maybe fewer now. 02:33 AA: But a group this size requires genuine leadership. 02:33 AA: Or there will be chaos. 02:33 TA: I tend to disagree. 02:33 TA: Remember that our session was fairly sizable in its own right. 02:33 AA: Yes. 02:33 TA: Many died for one reason or another. 02:33 AA: And you had a 50% mortality rate. 02:33 TA: Yes. 02:33 AA: One which has increased since joining our session. 02:34 TA: Yes. 02:34 AA: And now we are giving way to infighting. 02:34 TA: Because we strayed from our original mission of openness. 02:34 TA: People began acting on their own. 02:34 TA: And we have lost teammates. 02:34 AA: People will alwaves attempt to act on their own if they do not have a chain of command. It is the nature of trolls, at least, and I believe even humans have this instinct. 02:35 TA: Humans are not typically so Machiavellian. 02:35 AA: Machiavellian? Oh, the human satirist. 02:35 AA: I am not speaking of tyranny here. Perhaps if you wish to quote human philosophers at me you should look more to Hobbes. 02:35 AA: Or at the very least Locke if you wish to be more touchy-feely about it. 02:36 TA: From my experience, It looks more as if Sartre was right. 02:36 TA: But I did not come here to get lost in the ramblings of dead men. 02:36 AA: It does seam a bit of a waste of time. 02:36 AA: But then again of all the players you and I are probably those who have least to fear from wasting time. 02:36 TA: No, that would be my belt. 02:37 AA: And yet there still never seams to be enough. 02:37 TA: No, there is never enough time. 02:37 TA: Clearly. 02:37 TA: Even if you make 10 years for yourself, you'll still beg for more when you run out. 02:37 AA: Wasting time is potentially an interpretation of my role, however. 02:38 AA: However, I am both effectively immortal and, theoretically, a time traveller. This should not be so problematic. 02:38 TA: Without grist, you will not be able to time travel. 02:38 AA: I need grist to time travel? 02:38 TA: Even I, in my extreme power, cannot time travel without my time machine. 02:38 AA: I suppose that puts a crimp on my plans to meet my future self. 02:39 AA: It explains why I have been so unsuccessful so far though. 02:39 TA: I don't even know if Jack can do it without a tool. 02:39 TA: Though his is likely much smaller. 02:39 TA: Or, perhaps more aptly, some kind of an implant. 02:42 AA: So, Katherine. How do you intend to respond to all of the events that have transpired here? 02:42 AA: I must admit I am somewhat torn as to my plans here myself. 02:42 TA: Frankly, I'm searching for ideas on that, myself. 02:42 AA: I will probably oppose Maenam just for the joy of disrespecting her, but beyond that I am not shore. 02:43 TA: Hmm. 02:43 TA: I have not spoken to her recently. 02:43 AA: At the moment I guess my plans remain unchanged. I will follow the Horntaker at least for long enough to get a better feel for the situation, then I will decide from there. 02:44 AA: Assuming the Horntaker is even still in a position to lead. Certainly if this Meouet has been pulling the puppet strings all along questions arise as to whether she is reelly in a position to enforce her edicts about respecting her authority. 02:45 AA: And if she reelly did "pull another Sami through" or however she put it, then that explains a lot of the dissonance in the Horntaker's behavior. 02:45 TA: There is a lot of unanswered questions. 02:45 TA: are* 02:45 AA: How she can seam to be weak and pliable and frondly in one moment and then tyrannical and authoritative in the next. 02:45 AA: "And remember, I love you all" one moment then "I will krill any who oppose my authority" in the next. 02:46 AA: It is honestly exhausting. 02:46 TA: But you are black for her, I take it? 02:46 AA: What, for the Horntaker? No. 02:46 TA: Oh. 02:46 TA: Hmm. 02:46 AA: She is a mess. 02:46 TA: I am... not as good at this as my... late moirail. 02:46 TA: He was much better at reading people. 02:47 TA: And helping with that type of thing. 02:47 AA: I pity the Horntaker too much to give her proper hate. 02:47 AA: Though I do distrust her. Perhaps because I still feel betrayed by who she terned out to be, after who she seamed to be on the Base. 02:47 AA: Although that was the Horntaker from our universe. 02:49 TA: It is important to remember, especially as a time player, that they are different people. 02:49 TA: The only thing that is the same between them is their biology. 02:49 AA: Are they reelly though? Their circumstances are different, but the core of them is the same. 02:49 TA: Genetics, yes. Experience? Epigenetics? No. 02:50 AA: Can you reelly tell me that the Horntak--that Sami would not betray us all for the sake of someone she was in love with? 02:51 AA: Or that she could ever be convinced to tern on someone she loved even if they gave in to darkest evil? 02:51 AA: I have not spoken to her personally. But nothing she has said so far has convinced me she is not the same person on the inside. 02:52 AA: That she may very whale be clever and tactical, but it does not matter once her heart takes over. 02:52 TA: I think that, were Sami to be the downfall of someone she loved, or were she to be the downfall of others because of someone she loved, she would do so unwittingly or greatly unwillingly. 02:52 AA: And that her heart is completely blind to anything resembling common sense. 02:53 TA: I will not say it will never happen. 02:53 AA: ...of course I suppose as I say that I must admit to having similar faults at times. I have made bad decisions for Acenia's sake. 02:53 AA: Perhaps those points of similarity are what make me dislike her so much though. I sea my own failings in her. 02:54 AA: Also, am I to understand she is responsible for Jack's return somehow? Meouet seamed to imply it. 02:54 TA: I think all of us have those failings. 02:55 TA: I am unsure of that claim. 02:55 TA: Though, Meouet is seldom wrong. 02:55 AA: Oh? 02:55 TA: Yes. 02:55 AA: Are you thinking of joining her then? 02:55 TA: No. 02:55 AA: If she is seldom wrong one must question whether you think that somehow what she is doing is right. 02:56 TA: Factually. 02:56 TA: Not morally. 02:56 TA: Until now, I agreed with her, mostly, morally. 02:56 TA: But it appears she has... shown her true colors. 02:56 AA: You must understand, I was raised by the Condesce. I am comfortable with the notion that the correct thing to do is not alwaves the moral thing to do. 02:56 TA: Certainly. 02:56 AA: It is why I am willing to at least entertain the notion of observing Samantha's leadership. 02:57 AA: Despite my distaste for her. 02:57 TA: Merrow. 02:57 AA: Yes? 02:57 TA: Why do you call me Katherine? 02:57 AA: That is your name, is it not? 02:57 TA: No. 02:57 TA: It is Kate. 02:57 AA: Just Kate? I assumed it was short for somefin. 02:58 TA: My name is not shortened. 02:58 TA: Though, usually it is. 02:58 TA: I think my mother had some sort of... 02:58 TA: Higher purpose in selecting my name as such. 02:58 AA: It feels somewhat....familiar to refer to someone who I have no reel relationship with by a shortened name. 02:58 AA: But if your name is not Katherine I suppose I have no choice. 02:58 TA: Perhaps then it can be a bridge to a "reel" relationship. 02:59 AA: Fin....Human Kate. 02:59 TA: Would you prefer I call you Upcoming Condescor Prince Merrow Niadis, first of his name? 03:00 AA: Somewhat. Although I suppose now that I have, temporarily, ceded to Maenam's claim I can no longer call myself His Imperious Condescension. And I am not even shore if I am technically in the line of succession, until I grind her beneath my boots. 03:01 TA: Merrow. 03:01 AA: She is even less mortal than Laynne was, if I understand this Cod Tier thing correctly. 03:01 TA: I want you to ask yourself something. 03:01 TA: Does that even matter? 03:01 AA: What? 03:01 TA: Does the throne matter? 03:01 AA: Yes. 03:01 AA: It does. 03:01 TA: Why? 03:01 AA: Because I promised to make Acenia empress. 03:02 TA: Should you survive, you will become something greater. 03:02 TA: A god. 03:02 AA: Then I shall be a Cod-Emperor. 03:02 TA: I think on the grand scheme of things, being a god kind of includes being an emperor. 03:02 AA: Perhaps. I am not shore if it would have fulfilled her Primer. 03:02 TA: Which you say is now filled? 03:02 AA: And I am not shore if Scarlet would sea it as all that impressive. This session is rife with cod tiers already. 03:03 AA: Yes....but I am filling it for our sake. 03:03 TA: You still have to beat Jack in a duel. 03:03 AA: And so that once I defeat Jack and the Herald, our union cannot be contested by any species. 03:03 TA: Or just kill him and fill it later. 03:03 AA: My understanding is that winning the duel makes filling the primer unnecessary. 03:03 TA: I assure you. 03:04 TA: If you duel him, alone, you will die. 03:04 AA: For now. 03:04 TA: A duel is impossible. 03:04 TA: If you had the lifetime of a universe to prepare, perhaps you could take him on. 03:04 TA: And frankly, by then it may seem hard to care about it for that long. 03:04 AA: Or I could cheat. 03:04 TA: You could. 03:04 AA: It is not as though he will not be doing the same anyway. 03:05 TA: And I encourage you to try. 03:05 TA: But do not die. 03:05 AA: I do not intend to. 03:05 TA: Good. 03:05 AA: I will not challenge him until I am reasonably shore I have a chance against him. 03:05 AA: But I also will not wait for the heat death of the universe. 03:06 AA: If I trusted Jack to stick to his word, I would say that I reelly only need to get to the point that I can beat the Herald. 03:06 AA: But I do not necessarily trust him to stick to his word. 03:06 TA: Let me give you a bit of a... primer. 03:06 TA: From someone who landed the killing blow on him last time. 03:06 AA: Oh? Did you? 03:06 TA: I did. 03:07 TA: The only way you can win is if you work with your friends. 03:07 AA: Unfortunately a Primer duel does not allow for that. At least as far as I am aware. 03:07 AA: It is possible a proxy could be used, but I do not think multiple proxies are an option. 03:08 AA: But I will check with Scarlet if there is not a loop hole to be exploited there. 03:08 AA: The twinks seam to be fairly antisocial. It is possible that it never occurred to them to consider teamwork in a situation like that. 03:08 TA: You could loop yourself. 03:08 TA: But so can he. 03:08 AA: Yes. My thoughts exactly on the point. 03:08 AA: If I were strong enough, I suspect that as a Destroyer of Time, I would have the advantage on him. 03:08 AA: But given his experience I cannot rely on that. 03:10 TA: I had to pull in a rogue of time from another session. 03:10 TA: One who died in ours. 03:10 AA: What is the difference between a rogue and a thief? 03:10 AA: In FLARP they seam to be largely the same. 03:10 TA: Rogues steal and give to their allies. 03:10 TA: Theives steal and keep for themselves. 03:10 AA: Oh. 03:10 AA: Thieves seam to have the advantage in a duel, then. 03:11 AA: But Rogues sound like they would be more powerful overall. Depending on the team. 03:11 AA: Looking at it purely from the perspective of a skirmish game, of course. 03:11 TA: Hence our overwhelming victory over his first form. 03:11 AA: Stacking advantages on those most capable of using them. 03:12 AA: You could get away with having only one or two powerful units, and place all your support powers on those units. 03:12 AA: You would not want to have only one of course. Then you would run the risk of that one being taken out by overwhelming force. 03:13 AA: But, say, two or three powerful fighters teamed with five or six support units would be very capable. Although perhaps somewhat weaker against swarths of lesser anemones. Unless the fighters had some sort of crowd control. 03:13 TA: Or area damage. 03:13 AA: That's what I mean. 03:13 TA: Or multiplicative capabilites. 03:13 TA: And we have both. 03:14 AA: Although control is not to be ignored as an important point too. 03:14 TA: We have that also. 03:14 AA: They say "The best status ailment you can inflict is dead," but sometimes giving the anemone a tern disadvantage is easier to accomplish and to keep up. 03:14 AA: Stun-lock is never to be sneezed at. 03:16 TA: Giving one the ability to attack 2-5 times in a row before an opponent can even block is incredibly powerful. 03:16 TA: You and I can both do that, albeit in different ways. 03:16 TA: You would likely freeze the one being attacked, and I would speed up the one doing the attacking. 03:17 AA: Yes. That is dolphinitely worth considering. I froze the Herald for a time on LOBAB. 03:18 AA: We almost managed to send him back far enough that he would not have been awakened, in fact. 03:18 TA: Really? 03:18 TA: Wow. 03:18 TA: That's impressive. 03:19 TA: You and I would make a potent team. Condescor. 03:20 AA: Perhaps. Honestly there are a lot of us who would have more synergy, if we had the opportunaty to practice more. 03:20 AA: But the only fight we have ever been in was against the Herald. 03:20 TA: Hmm. 03:20 AA: Which was, I feel, slightly advanced for a first outing. 03:20 TA: There is a gym. 03:20 AA: Whale, unless you count the fight with Bothwell. 03:20 TA: Who? 03:20 AA: Yes. I have been considering sparring with some of the others. 03:21 TA: We could do group sparring. 03:21 AA: Bothwell. He was....I am not shore if we ever figured out if he was an alternate version of Thiago or some sort of ancestor. 03:21 TA: Hmm. 03:21 TA: We might be onto something here. 03:21 AA: But he was a wizard from another timeline who krilled Acenia in many other timelines. 03:21 TA: That's unfortunate. 03:21 AA: he is the source of the skulls that are now empowering the other post-scratch players. 03:21 TA: But he's dead now, I guess? 03:21 TA: Ah. 03:21 AA: Yes. Your frond Doir did some sort of computer thing to him. 03:21 TA: Ah yes. 03:22 AA: Although I think I had already pretty much dominated him by that point. 03:22 TA: He was instrumental in our beating Jack. 03:22 TA: He gave Maenam powers. 03:22 TA: That I exploited. 03:22 AA: Powers? 03:22 TA: Powers. 03:22 TA: Basically... 03:22 AA: Beyond the powers of a....whatever her role is? 03:22 TA: Any benefits conveyed to her were conveyed to the rest of us. 03:23 TA: So, upon speeding her up, I sped the rest of us up. 03:23 AA: ...that is incredibly potent. 03:23 TA: Which allowed me to repeat the process ad infinitum. 03:23 AA: I do not know if the rules of this game match those of FLARP exactly, but generally speaking support maneuvers that target only a single unit are much more powerful than those that target multiple. 03:23 AA: If you could use single-target maneuvers to power up an entire team at once... 03:23 TA: Greatly so. 03:23 AA: ...the possibilities are astounding. 03:23 TA: That is why it is paramount that we support eachother. 03:24 AA: Yes. I can sea that. 03:24 AA: Whale, if you veterans are still attempting to captain this ship, you have your work cut out for you unifying us again. 03:24 TA: If one person dies, that's an unfathomable amount of utility lost that could save others later. 03:24 TA: We were devastated by the loss of Beau. 03:24 AA: Agreed. Which is part of why this recent string of deaths has been so troubling. 03:24 AA: It is not as though we can replace lost units. 03:24 TA: Merrow, I don't want us to captain this ship. I want us all to. 03:24 AA: Ah, yes, the Queen of Earth. Was she more instrumental to your plans than the other loses? 03:25 TA: No. 03:25 TA: But she was the first death that happened in a group fight, to my knowlege. 03:25 TA: The others got themselves killed elsewhere. 03:25 AA: I still disagree with your belief that we can all captain this ship together. Democracy is somefin that has been tried in the past on Earth to my knowledge, but when it came to war even you humans saw that it shrimply does not work in a crisis. 03:25 AA: It, at best, works during peacetime. 03:26 AA: But someone has to be able to make decisions quickly and not be questioned when lives are on the line and time is short. 03:27 AA: Otherwise you get the situation we have been in for the last few months: everyone goes off in their own direction and gets themselves into trouble that the rest of us have to deal with. Which we attempt to deal with by, again, just all running in whatever direction occurs to us at the time. 03:27 TA: ((how to make kate a democratic centralist)) 03:27 TA: ((without being a democratic centralist)) 03:28 TA: No one has to lead everything. 03:28 TA: We can have a series of trusted combat leaders. 03:28 TA: But we still can't have this be a dictatorship 03:29 TA: There's already dissent. 03:29 AA: Then we will continue to have players like Malloy who just do whatever they want regardless of group decisions and leave the rest of us to deal with their recklessness. 03:30 TA: We are capable of clamping down on recklessness as a group. 03:30 TA: Hold on. 03:30 AA: I have yet to sea evidence of you doing so. 03:30 TA: Something has come up. 03:30 TA: I will return in just a moment, from your perspective to finish this, if you wish. 03:31 AA: If you like. 03:31 AA: I doubt any decision that either of us comes up with right now will make a difference though. 03:31 TA: Perhaps not. 03:31 TA: But I think it's worth a try. 03:31 AA: You would need to convince the Horntaker, and Maenam, and maybe even this Meouet not to wrest control. 03:31 AA: And they all seam set on it at the moment. 03:32 TA: Sami is not an issue. Maenam will be dealt with, and Meouet... 03:32 TA: I don't know about that yet. 03:32 AA: Sami is not an issue? That is news to me. 03:32 AA: Has somefin changed? 03:32 TA: I will make it change. 03:32 TA: Should it come to it. 03:32 TA: But I must go. 03:32 AA: I guess we shall sea. She seamed prepared to krill any who opposed her before. 03:33 AA: But perhaps that was Meouet's influence. At this point I do not even know. 03:33 AA: But yes, go ahead. 03:33 TA: Talk to you in a moment. 03:34 AA: Talk to you then.